Toshio Tabeta
|image = File:Gamewatch_toshio_tabeta_2011.png |imagesize = 150px |caption = Toshio Tabeta, circa 2011 |Row 1 title = Birthdate: |Row 1 info = 1963Staff (May 1, 2003). "Producer Toshio Tabeta Interview" (Japanese). Yuge (Vol. 7, #8). Pg. 94-96 |Row 2 title = Occupation: |Row 2 info = Game director and producer |Row 3 title = Years Active: |Row 3 info = 1987–present }} Toshio Tabeta ( ) is a video game producer and former staff at NEC Avenue, being executive producer for their Strider PC Engine port. He's currently the president of Prototype. Tabeta is somewhat infamous in Japan for getting game projects delayed several times over and either released years after initial announcement or sometimes outright getting cancelled. Early Days Toshio Tabeta went and graduated from Toho University. During his student years he wrote and programmed his very own games and later became a columnist for the magazine "Monthly MyCom”, being in charge of a video game review section titled "T-TIME". Career After joining NEC Avenue, Toshio Tabeta worked primarily as director and producer of video games for the PC Engine, for the most part dedicated to porting games from other consoles or Arcade games. Among his first projects stand Capcom's SonSon II (an original sequel to the Arcade game SonSon) and the port of Side Arms, as well as porting games from Sega (including Space Harrier, Fantasy Zone, OutRun and Altered Beast) and Taito (Darius). In 1988 a port of the Toaplan Arcade game Wardner was announced as one of the first titles for the PC Engine, but the title was delayed several times and changed formats (from HuCard to CD-ROM² and then Super CD-ROM²) under Tabeta's supervision before being finally cancelled. In a 2003 interview with magazine "Yuge" ( ), Tabeta stated he refused to release it because he saw it as a crude product that wasn't representative of the console's specs due to the programmer's lack of skill. Tabeta also worked on Space Fantazy Zone, an hybrid of Sega's Space Harrier and Fantasy Zone. The game was worked on in 1991 and promoted as late as 1995NEC Avenue (1995). Space Fantasy Zone promotional flyer. Accessed 2019., until it was finally cancelled near its completion. Tabeta called the game a "Dōjin" (amateur) level work and not being up to par as a parody work of Space Harrier as the reasons for its cancellation. Strider Similarly to Wardner, the PC Engine port of Strider was first announced in August 1989 and reported to be developed for the SuperGrafx at the end of the year. The port, however, got delayed and first downgraded into a bi-compatible SuperGrafx/PC-Engine title by 1991, then it was announced in 1993 as a Super CD-ROM² game with a planned release date on March 1994. It was finally released in September 1994 as a Super CD-ROM² with Arcade Card support after changing formats 4 different times. Around the same time he also oversaw an original RPG title, Monster Maker: Yami no Ryuukishi, based on a popular 1988 trading card game in Japan. The game was released two years behind schedule in 1994 and has serious bugs and a never-resolved cliffhanger, with its intended sequel cancelled. Tabeta commented the sequel's development bloated out eight folds and that by the point it was almost complete for the PC Engine, the staff would have had to scratch it and start it all over in order to release it in a different console. Owning up to its constant delays, Tabeta promised to game magazine Dengeki PC Engine that Monster Maker would release November 26, 1993 and that if he were to miss that date he’d shave his head as punishmentPCEngineCLUB (March 17, 2017). "PCEngineCLUB's twitter" (Japanese). Accessed November 28, 2019.. As the release was finally postponed again, Tabeta appeared in the December issue and fulfilled his promise by publishing photos of him with a shaven headStaff (December 1993). "NEC Avenue Times" (Japanese). Dengeki PC Engine (11). Pg. 75. This issue also features the first report in two years about the PC Engine port of Strider, as no information on its status was released ever since 1991. Later years Toshio Tabeta continued working for the company after it was rebranded NEC Interchannel in 1995. During the late 90's and early 2000's he worked on original series (such as the Black/Matrix series) and ports for the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast. His port of Sentimental Graffiti 2 for Dreamcast was initially scheduled to release in January 2000. The March issue of Dengeki Dreamcast, however, announced the game’s new release date in April, and included a small blurb showing photos of Tabeta shaving his head once again as apology for the delayStaff (March 24, 2000). "Catch the moment of Sentimental Grafitti 2 General Producer Toshio Tabeta's shaving!" (Japanese). Dengeki Dreamcast (31). Pg. 10. Sentimental Graffiti 2 would finally be released the following July. Tabeta's final game for Interchannel was the adventure game Muragiri ( , lit. Mist) for PlayStation 2. First announced in 2004, the game was cancelled in 2006 after two specific incidents: an internal reestructuring of Interchannel that led to Tabeta leaving the company and the game's development and the unfortunate death of character designer Hiderou Horibe ( ) from heart failure. The game's cancellation was announced in December through its official website. After leaving Interchannel, Tabeta funded the company Prototype, a video game publisher who mainly produces visual novels. Gameography } | Capcom | NEC Avenue | PC Engine | Producer |- | 1994 | Strider Hiryū | Dice Creative | NEC Avenue | PC Engine | Executive Producer |- | 1994 | Dragon Knight III | TamTam | NEC Avenue | PC Engine | Producer |- | 1995 | Dōkyūsei | ELF Corporation | NEC Avenue | PC Engine | Producer |- | 1995' ' | Space Fantasy Zone | NEC Avenue | | PC Engine | |- | 199X' ' | Monster Maker: The Ark of the Gods | NEC Avenue | | PC Engine | |- | 1997 | Dragon Knight 4 | NEC Interchannel | NEC Interchannel | PC-FX | Producer |- | 1997 | Dōkyūsei 2 | ELF Corporation | NEC Interchannel | PC-FX, Sega Saturn | Producer, writter |- | 1998 | Black/Matrix | Flight-Plan | NEC Interchannel | Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, PlayStation | Producer |- | 1998 | Sentimental Graffiti | NEC Interchannel | NEC Interchannel | Sega Saturn | Producer |- | 1999' ' | Monster Maker Holy Dagger | NEC Interchannel | | Sega Saturn | |- | 2000 | Sentimental Graffiti 2 | NEC Interchannel | NEC Interchannel | Dreamcast | Producer |- | 2001 | Air | NEC Interchannel | NEC Interchannel | Dreamcast | Producer |- | 2002 | Black/Matrix II | Flight-Plan | NEC Interchannel | PlayStation 2 | Producer |- | 2002 | Black/Matrix Zero | Flight-Plan | NEC Interchannel | Game Boy Advance | Producer |- | 2004 | Black/Matrix 00 | Flight-Plan | NEC Interchannel | PlayStation | Producer |- | 2006' ' | Muragiri | Interchannel | | PlayStation 2 | |- |} References * "多部田俊雄" on the Japanese Wikipedia. Version from August 1, 2019. * "斑霧" on the Japanese Wikipedia. Version from November 30, 2018. Category:Creators